Unseasonal rains, hailstorms, and strong winds damaged more than 523 000 ha (1 292 332 acres) of wheat crop in three Indian states, causing harvesting challenges and fears of significant yield losses. The untimely rains have also affected mustard, channa, barley, and vegetable crops, among others.
Prayagraj District, the most populous district in the Uttar Pradesh state of India, has been hit by heavy unseasonal rain and hailstorm that devastated the farming community on March 19 and again on March 21, 2023. The natural calamity has caused extensive damage to crops of over 10 030 farmers in the region.
Extremely heavy rain brought by Tropical Storm “Nesat” over the weekend hit parts of Taiwan, causing huge agricultural losses. The worst affected were farmers in northern and northeastern parts of the country.
An intense hailstorm hit Qhingyuan District in China’s Hebei Province on June 14, 2022, causing severe damage to crops and other material losses.
Spain is expected to produce its lowest volume of fruit in the last 40 years due to frost that hit its fruit-production regions in early April, especially the Ebro Valley – one of the most important producing areas of sweet fruit in Europe.
A severe hailstorm struck Murcia, Spain on May 2, 2022, causing major damage to the apricot crop. The Region of Murcia is located in the southeast part of the Iberian Peninsula and produces two-thirds of Spain’s apricot. The storm comes one month after early April frost caused massive damage to stone fruit in Ebro valley, one of the most important producing areas of sweet fruit in Europe.
A severe hailstorm lashed parts of north Kashmir on April 25, 2022, causing heavy damage to fruit orchards. This is the second damaging hailstorm to hit the region this month.
The cold wave that hit parts of Europe earlier this month seems to have spared the French producers of peaches and apricots, who were severely affected last year. However, it severely affected other European regions, especially the north of Spain where losses are currently estimated at more than 50 million Euro, on top of 11 million caused by persistent rains.
Unseasonably cold weather hit parts of Europe over the past weekend, following warmer-than-normal temperatures in previous weeks that caused rapid greening of flora. Damage to agriculture is widespread but it seems it’s not as bad as it was last year when a similar cold episode happened. The worst affected countries were France, Germany, Spain and Austria.
Photos from the Kingdom of Tonga show streets and buildings covered in heavy ash after the massive eruption at Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai on January 15, 2022. While streets and roofs can be cleared, tsunami waves, up to 15 m (49 feet) in some places, and heavy…
